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The Two Witnesses

11 [a]Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.[b] And I will grant my two witnesses[c] power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

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Footnotes

  1. 11.1-19 The Jerusalem here described stands for the church, that is to be persecuted by the Romans.
  2. 11.2 The three and a half years’ persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, 168–165 b.c, had become the standard time of a persecution. Three and a half years equals 42 months equals 1,260 days (verse 3).
  3. 11.3 two witnesses: As they have yet to die, possibly they are Elijah and Enoch.

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